§ Mr. DalyellTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the letter to the hon. Member for Linlithgow of 13 July, Reference MC 172596/am, what information she has submitted to the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea and its Advisory Council on Ecosystems about the proposal of Dr. David Conover that big fish should be returned to the sea, in the interests of total biomass harvested. [74195]
§ Mr. MorleyWe have not drawn ICES' attention to the work of Dr. Conover. Our scientists have considered carefully Dr. Conover's work but have concluded that 925W his conclusions are likely to have limited relevance to fish stocks exploited in the waters around the UK. One of the main reasons for this is that there are relatively few large fish in our waters. The priority in our fisheries is to help overfished stocks to recover by reducing the overall fishing rate on all sizes of fish and to help juvenile fish to survive beyond the age of maturity.